Two stops later, Sehun stepped off the train, having to resort to pulling his phone out and pretend to speak into it as he hissed at Tao to ‘stop that’ – he had his head on the lap of a particularly busty cosplayer - and ‘come on!!!!’ so everyone wouldn’t think he was just crazy. Honestly, all those movies about invisible people – no one told you how difficult to try and not come off as a total freak! Talking out loud to ‘yourself’, suddenly bursting into laughter and guffawing your head off all alone –

Like when the invisible spectre started questioning Sehun about what each item in the old lady’s bag was for, his comments pretty much uniformly indecipherable coz they all went – ‘what is this whee whee thing?!’ ‘whaa~~ this so moffumooffuu!’... ‘it’s a little tree-piece, look!! Sehun!!’ ‘this yellow is slippery- Sehun, it smells funny - AAaahhhhhhhhh!!!’ His screeching falling away into coughing and retching as he spat desperately, having apparently tried to eat a bar of soap - before suffering a fit of hiccups, to the astonishment of the rest of the passengers who couldn’t understand why bursts of soapy bubbles were appearing out of thin air to pop against them…

Or when the curious monkey pushed his head behind the newspaper a sharply dressed businessman was reading only to yell out gleefully to Sehun about the magazine he was hiding inside the sheets

Or when he crouched in the overhead rack, ignoring Sehun’s hissed pleas, peering down at everyone looking for hidden horns coz he just couldn’t believe how all these people could be human...

When he started stomping his way heavily up the stairs from the station and out onto the road beside Sehun, childishly puffing his cheeks out after Sehun snapped at him to stop floating, pouting churlishly as he muttered ‘fine!! I’ll just act like a human then, stupid noisy ogres’…

When he forgot all about being miffed to squeal and run [through the air] behind a little terrier, dragging Sehun along [bouncing him a foot into space at every pebble], as he cried, his words running into each other in his excitement - ‘what is that it's socute!!Look Sehun- -lokk look aaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!’ … the sight of the stupid idiot patting the puppy, his own tail wagging as hard, his pointy ears twitching happily as he his fingers through its fur was the last straw - he was just like a little baby animal himself!!!! Sehun’s cheeks, already burning with the effort of trying to keep his muscles frozen, just gave up and he burst out laughing, barely holding himself up against the chain-link fence that bordered the street…

Honestly, who was it who said demons were scary!!!!

‘Sehun!! Sehunaaahh~~ ne!! Are you looking??? Look!!!’
In his excitement, Tao pushed the puppy towards him, and sighing resignedly, Sehun bent down to pet him – the puppy happily wuffling and yipping at all the attention [apparently, Tao’s invisibility didn’t work on animals] when suddenly, a yell sounded out from the park on the other side of the fence.
‘Bbbaaaaaaaalllll’ –

‘Ah!’ – Sehun gasped, something – some incomprehensible instinct making his throw himself out onto Tao, his arms outstretched –

But it was too late.

The ball burst into flames as it revolved, burning completely to cinders till only a clump of ashes was left, gently dropping to the ground – and the demon was standing, drawing himself up till he seemed about twice his usual height, bristling all over so he seemed to grow twice as large…. His eyes darkened in relentless embers, his tail suddenly motionless, standing stiff, straight up, the end growing to resemble a dagger.. The air about him swelled, drenched in darkness till the aura of ruthless wrath was palpable, driving icicles of terror through Sehun – even Sehun, who… for a horrible, nauseating moment was sure he would be sick, as he helplessly watched Tao stare down the kids who’d come running up, freezing in fear as they saw the ashes of their ball float into the wind.. shaking all over…

Right….

By the time Sehun got to school, the bell was already going – and there wasn’t enough time to do more than nod at Jongin in greeting before jumping quickly into his seat, hastily pulling Tao down onto the floor beside him. Luckily he sat right at the back, and [hopefully] no one would notice as his lunchbox floated out of his bag and into the air.. or his phone, sliding out of his pocket, scrolled itself into a soccer game. The others – Jongin and Minseok and Chanyeol and Baekhyun, all seemed to be acting perfectly normal.. but then again, maybe their..demons… had invisibility too… dammit someone needs to have figured out how to get rid of them!!!

Meanwhile, he had to get through the morning classes, gritting his teeth and frequently lobbing kicks at the giant idiot who kept somehow cancelling out the ‘mute’ function [Sehun finally had to make him take the earphones, and make them invisible too]; or dozing off, drooled all over Sehun’s knee; or, having gotten through Sehun’s, started trying to steal lunchboxes from everyone around……

☲☲☲

‘Oye!! Stoppit!!!’

‘Eehhh don’t be stingy~~’

‘Yeah, it’s not good for you~~’ Chanyeol joined in, following suit as Baekhyun picked out a chocolate stick from Jongin’s box. ‘You hippopotamus – get yo’ hands out, fatty!’

‘……….haaaaaaa???!!! I’m like, half your size!!’

‘GUYS!!!!’ Something about Sehun’s voice had them snapping out of their escalating recess bickering to stare at him.

‘What??’ ‘What!’ ‘What???’

‘…………………’ Taking a deep breath, and pointedly ignoring Tao who was gleefully trying to sneak out a chocolate now that everyone’s attention was off the bright red box and onto Sehun, he plunged on. ‘So… guys… that… ummm… so that… thing – the… spell.. thing we found yesterday, you guys tried it, right?’

‘Eehhhhhh~~’ ‘that’s what it was??’ ‘Heeehehehe, I thought he was gonna say something important!!’ ‘Hahahhaa’ Dismissing him immediately, they went back to fighting over the food; Baekhyun laughing, Minseok shaking his head.

‘Actually…..’

‘Hmm?’

Sheepishly, Jongin rubbed the back of his neck. ‘Actually, I kinda… did try to..do it..ya know..’

‘Eeehhhhh!! You did??????’ Chanyeol gaped at him, his eyes going round – before he burst into laughter, shaking so hard his guffaws toppled him right off the desk he was perched on, ‘HAAAHHAAAA!!! How stupid can you get!!!! You thought that would work???’ dropping on the floor to roll, making Tao jump into the air to float there, peering down curiously at him

‘Hey!!’ scowling, Minseok kicked his . ‘I did too, ya know!’

‘….Min…. seok…. did….?? Aaah…’ Slowly, Chanyeol stopped laughing, brushing himself off as he clambered back to his feet.

‘I did too!!’ Baekhyun snuck in, grinning broadly at the display of his unease. ‘Oh, of course, you did, you -‘ Chanyeol slapped at his foot as he tried to kick out at him, landing a sharp one on his ankle.

‘G-U-Y-S!!’

Exasperated, Sehun banged on the desk to get their attention, almost jostling Jongin’s chemistry papers right off. ‘And then???’

‘………….ehhh…..well.. well obviously it didn’t work…. ‘ Jongin frowned at him, puzzled by his vehemence.

’Yeah! Dammit, I really thought I was gonna be rich~~’

 ‘Huh??’

‘Obviously! It said to wish for what we want, right? I totally went moneehh~~’ Baekhyun sang the word out, carrying it through a whole scale before Chanyeol chucked Minseok’s pencil case at him. ‘What about you, Jongin-ah?’

‘…. Ah…well..’

‘Yes??’

‘I.. A spot in that dance school….ya know – that one where Professor Yixing teaches… They’re having auditions next week and…’

‘…whoa…’

‘Hey, that’s cool, man.’ ‘Yeah! Jongin, that’s really cool!’ ‘Aaahh, but you don’t need some.. black magic deal, you can get in on your own!!’ ‘Yeah dude!’ ‘You’re really good, Jongin!’ ‘Ehh..ehehee.. shuddup~’ ‘No man, for real~’ ‘Yeah...well..fingers crossed, right… What about you, Minnie~~’

‘That you idiots would stop calling me that.’

‘Seriously~~’ ‘yeah, c’mon, Minnie~~’ ‘Yeah, spill, Minnie, I told mine!!’

‘I will punch the next person who says that.’

‘Hey, shouldn’t you get the person who started it~~’

‘Yeah, Minnie, he started it, you should punch hi-‘

……………………………………….

…………………

‘Okay, seriously, though, Minseokie, what did you wish for?’Jongin breathed through his chuckles as he helped Chanyeol up, who was still wincing from Minseok’s revenge.

‘Nothing important.. It didn’t even work anyway.’

‘Yeeahh…. Tcheh~~ It would’ve been so cool though, if it had, ne~~’

‘Oh, come on, you guys!! There's no way it would’ve worked, right?? That stuff’s not real!! Magic and ..and like.. supernatural and all that?? No way!! It’s just in fairytales, Heh~~’

‘Hey!!!!’ Sehun stuck his finger in Chanyeol’s chest. ‘When we found that book yesterday, you said you’d do it too!’

‘Well obviously, I was just playin’ ya~~ heh~~’ Sniffing superiorly again, Chanyeol flicked his hair off his forehead, striking a pose – just as the bell rang, bringing with it Teacher Junmyeon, armed with a giant rolled up periodic table, and followed by Kyungsoo, his teaching assistant, bearing a tray with a set of beakers and sample jars. ‘Good Morning kids, settle down~~ Has everyone finished their homework? Pass them up to the front, and let’s discuss them, shall we? ‘

‘Yes, Sir!’ Beaming broadly, Jongin enthusiastically grabbed up the sheaf of papers he’d had ready on his desk, lining them up straight before handing them carefully to Chanyeol who sat in front of him, grinning sweetly at Kyungsoo all the while –

 While Sehun groaned, sinking down into his seat, trying to hunch down as far as possible.

‘What’s up, human?’

‘..I didn’t do it!’

‘Eehh..’ Tao leaned over to look closer at the bunch Chanyeol had taken from Jongin, shaking it in the air with his nose wrinkled, muttering in disdain that Dumbhead should think of a better way to impress Kyungsoo – one that didn’t involve showing up the rest of them, before adding his own homework to the set [a single page], and handing it along to the front. ‘This thing?’

‘Yeah..’ Sehun growled under his breath, almost dropping to the floor as he attempted to hide, already knowing it was futile – missed homework never got past Kyungsoo of the Hawk-Eye and No Patience –

‘Here~~’

‘……’ Gasping, Sehun stared in shock at the papers in his hand that Tao had just pulled out of the air to lay in them. ‘Wh..a..?....’

‘Sehun! Oh Sehun, where’s your homework??

‘…urmm…’

Swallowing as he glanced over at Tao nodding encouragingly at him, he handed the papers to Kyungsoo – who looked disgruntled as he riffled through them, before grudgingly placing them on the teacher’s table.  ‘Okay… Baekhyun.. why don’t you stand up and tell us how you solved the first question..’